Removing the hot mirror will get you deep into the IR. Weather you add a filter or not, you will need some type of illumination in darkness. If you plan on shooting UV you will need a very bright UV light. I use a 40 LED UV illuminator and it only gets you about 10-15 feet.

"How often have I said to you that when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth?" Sherlock Holmes-Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

I was curious if anyone here has ever used a Digital Full Spectrum camera like the one they were using on GHI just the other night... I'd like to hear what results you've had...

Also, Barry said he built this camera... If anyone has ever done something like this before, can you share your knowledge on how to do this??? Thanks...

Christopher

I have not messed with this myself, but discovered that the conversion is done by removing the hot mirror and replacing it witj either a 720mm infrared pass filter or a clear filter for UV applications.

"He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster. And if you gaze for long into the abyss, the abyss also gazes into you."- Mark Twain

After modding a camera by filtering at the ccd for IR, I am really regretting it. Filter the aperture and leave the ccd alone. If necessary for autofocus, replace the hot mirror with clear optical glass. By filtering at the aperture, you have so many more options with what spectrum range that you want to shoot in.

I'm currently using an E.V.I.L. camera, and they kick BAD_WORD, I mean it's evil so it's cool right? It's really short for electric viewfinder interchangeable lens, and the big players are pentax and olympus. I did the full spectrum conversion myself, pretty strait forward. Take apart the camera, and pull out the filter and put it all back together. Since these cameras do not have a mirror, they let in more light to the sensor, and taking out the filter lets in even more! So they do work excellent in low light conditions. It can shoot at very high speed, I can get 7 shoots off in about one second and a half before I have to let the memory card catch up. For light I'm using a miltary surplus infrared light off a hummer. It has 7 really high power leds, and is designed for 24 volts. I power it with a 22.2 li-po4 rc battery pack. Fully charged it puts out 25 volts, and is 3000 mah. I've used it for 4 hours so far, and only spent half my battery life, so it works great. Bad is it's REALLY heavy, camera and light are about 4 pounds. People really highly under estimate how much ir light you need outside in the dark to get good shots. It's so much more than you think, but inside with reflective things you don't need much. So far I've only had it out a few times, but the images it can take with no flash are really cool. Hell it's better than my night vision scope to see in the pure darkness, but I only have a basic night vision so not a big deal really, it won't top a gen 2 or better. I can easily hit about 150 feet outside with good clarity in pictures right now, which is on par with my old film slr with a mega flash. Better break out the pocket book, camera is about 300, lens 50-300+++ depending on what you get, conversion if you can't do it yourself 250, and my light set up with charger cost 100 more. Is it worth it, well ask me after I catch something with it, but to me it is because I love putting together crazy stuff like this.

I have some of their equipment, and it works as advertised. I especially like their UV/IR Full Spectrum Camcorder. You can see a photo I took at the St. Augustine lighthouse laqst month over on mypara.net